Madrid, Oct 3 (IANS/EFE) The ranks of Spain's unemployed grew by nearly 80,000 last month to 4.7 million people, authorities said Tuesday.
Unemployment increased by 11.32 percent during the 12 months that ended Sep 30, the Employment and Social Security Ministry said in a report based on registrations at government employment offices.
Data from the workforce survey indicate that more than 5.6 million Spanish residents are without jobs, which translates into an unemployment rate of 24.63 percent, the highest in the 27-member European Union.
The jobless rate among Spain's under-25 population is 53 percent.
The secretary of state for employment, Engracia Hidalgo, pointed out that the Spanish economy remains in recession and is expected to shrink 1.5 percent this year.
September is traditionally the month when recent graduates enter the Spanish job market, while last month's figures also reflect layoffs of more than 120,000 teachers and 200,000 other government workers, according to the CSIF public employee union.
The leaders of Spain's two main labour federations issued a statement describing the latest jobless numbers as "unreservedly bad" and criticizing the government's 2013 budget for reducing unemployment protections.
Spending on jobless benefits totaled 2.65 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in August, up 7.9 percent from the same month in 2011.
Spain's economy has been battered in recent years by the global recession and the collapse of a massive real-estate bubble, which has left many banks saddled with toxic property assets.
--IANS/EFE
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